Ulster Kitchen Comedy: ‘a faithful if unpleasant picture of the national fragments’

Connolly, R (2024) 'Ulster Kitchen Comedy: ‘a faithful if unpleasant picture of the national fragments’.' In: Cochrane, C, Goddard, L, Hindson, C and Reid, T, eds. The Routledge companion to twentieth century British theatre and performance. Volume one: 1900-1950. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 318-330. ISBN 9780367487898

Text 15873.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 8 April 2026.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the genre of Kitchen Comedy in early twentieth-century Ulster, and how this genre provided at once a source of popular entertainment and a forum for dramatising social anxieties and tensions. It first considers the origin of Kitchen Comedy in the activities of the Irish Literary Theatre and its importance to Irish theatre traditions before moving on to examine the development of the form by the most well-known and successful of the early twentieth-century Ulster playwrights George Shiels and Joseph Tomelty. The plays of these writers defied the expectations of both the Irish and the British theatrical establishments, but they were nevertheless popular throughout Ireland and repeatedly produced on the major stages of both Belfast and Dublin. The chapter seeks to restore these writers to the historical record. It argues that Ulster Kitchen Comedy provides a striking example of the potential of popular stage performance to interact with social mores, challenge orthodoxies and re-frame established cultural narratives.

Item Type:	Book Chapter or Section
Divisions:	Bath School of Music and Performing Arts
Related URLs:	https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-...
Date Deposited:	04 Dec 2023 17:53
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2024 09:40
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/15873

	Request a change to this item or report an issue
	Update item (repository staff only)